Highlights from Faraday Discussion 184: Single-Molecule Microscopy and Spectroscopy, London, UK, September 2015

The 2015 Faraday Discussion on single-molecule microscopy and spectroscopy brought together leading scientists involved in various topics of single-molecule research. It attracted almost a hundred delegates from a broad spectrum of backgrounds and experience levels - from experimentalists to theoreticians, from biologists to materials scientists, from masters students to Nobel Prize Laureates. The meeting was merely a reflection of how big of an impact the ability to detect individual molecules has had on science over the past quarter of a century. In the following we give an overview of the topics covered during this meeting and briefly highlight the content of each presentation.